The Human Solutions’ Annual Toy Drive & Holiday Store Need Your Help Again This Year!
You may well be eating Halloween candy as you read this (we are!), but we’re also thinking ahead to our 2019 Toy Drive & Holiday Store for the low-income families we work with, a joyful holiday tradition since 2004. Just call us holiday multi-taskers!
Our annual Holiday Store is a unique event for low-income families because we invite parents in our programs to visit our toy “store” and select gifts they know their kids will want. In other words, they choose gifts for their kids; something people in poverty get to do far too seldom.
Will you help us make this event a success? With the help of our community – that’s you! – we can reach more low-income kids and families this year than ever before.
Here’s how you can help:
Collect & Donate Toys.
We are asking you – by yourself or together with your favorite group (church, company, block, knitting circle, sports team, book club, etc…) for help collecting gifts! Deliver donated items, coordinate a gift drive or host a donation bin in your space. Our biggest needs are for toys and games for kids ages 2 to 18. We request that all donations be new and unwrapped. You’ll find our Wish List here (it doubles as a flyer for your toy collection bin or to encourage friends and family to participate!). Last year we reached 540 kids, thanks to the community support of donors like you! This year, we’re hoping to grow our impact to 600 kids – but we can’t do it without your help.
Volunteer at the Holiday Store.
The truth is we couldn’t make this all happen without volunteers! Folks are needed to set up and clean up, wrap gifts, bake cookies & keep the hot chocolate flowing, and assist shoppers who want a hand. This year’s store takes place again at St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church at NE 174th & Glisan and will be open from Thursday, Dec. 19th through Saturday, Dec. 21st. Find dates and jobs that work for you – then sign up here.
Sponsor the Event.
Consider becoming a Toy Drive Sponsor to make it all possible. Options range from $250 to $5,000 – details right here.
Ready to jump in or have a question? Call 503.548.0213 or email the team. Our website is chock full of details, too.
Thanks in advance for bringing holiday cheer to families & kids – it’s a joy for givers and receivers alike!
Joyfully,
Lisa, Andie & the entire Human Solutions Toy Drive Team
https://ourjustfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Our-Just-Future-fka-HSI-logo.png00Lisa Frackhttps://ourjustfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Our-Just-Future-fka-HSI-logo.pngLisa Frack2019-11-01 11:58:332019-11-01 12:00:22Give Joyfully through the Toy Drive
I am so proud of all the great work our team is doing at Human Solutions that I just had to share three recent highlights with you. As someone who has supported our work in the community (thank you!), I hope you will be as energized by our progress and impact as I am.
Delivering More Affordable Housing
Over the next two to three years, we will bring 168 new apartments to East Portland, where the housing crisis is increasingly acute. Two big pieces of news to share:
Golden shovels to break ground this September. Big moment with terrific partners!
We broke ground in September on our most ambitious project yet: 75 new apartments with ground-floor retail and an anchor office/service center for Human Solutions, right next to Discovery Park in East Portland’s Gateway neighborhood. We look forward to moving into our new home 18 months from now, together with 75 families who will move into theirs. We sure hope you’ll join us for the grand opening! The site is at 106th & NE Halsey – you’ll see the cranes when you drive by.
We are redeveloping our former family shelter site into 93 permanently affordable homes for families. Human Solutions was awarded $13.9 million from the City of Portland’s 2016 Affordable Housing Bond (thank you, voters!) to move this exciting project forward. We’re thrilled that 16 of the apartments will provide “permanent supportive housing” for families experiencing chronic homelessness. What makes these units different is the high level of supportive services available to families to end their ongoing struggle with homelessness. Permanent supportive housing is a national best-practice with a proven track record creating sustainable homes for those who have been unhoused for years. Human Solutions has been an Oregon leader in developing and providing this type of housing for families, and we are thrilled to expand options in East Portland for families who have been unhoused for too long.
Our New Family Shelter Is Open
Over the last few months, our hard-working shelter team began welcoming families to Lilac Meadows, our new emergency shelter for families. We are partnering with Multnomah County to operate this new site, a former motel that allows families the privacy and normalcy of family life with the on-site support they need to find stable housing. Our terrific team works one-on-one with every resident family to transition from homelessness to housing. With homelessness in our region continuing to grow and a hundreds-long waitlist for emergency shelter, we are proud to be part of the solution, providing a safe place to live and rapid rehousing support for 39 families – including about 80 kids – every night. Our track record is strong, too: last year 85% of the families who moved into housing from our shelter remained housed for at least one year. If you want to help out (we hope you do!), our shelter volunteer & donations coordinator, Christina, would love to hear from you: volunteer@humansolutions.org or 503.278.1637.
New Employment Programming
Proud Skills2Work graduates holding their certificates in our Gresham Women’s Shelter.
The group you see here are proud graduates of Skills2Work, a new program we created to support people experiencing housing insecurity and homelessness as they prepare to re-enter the job market. While we have long worked with low/no income folks to help them increase their skills and find career-track employment, this program fills a gap by offering training and support for those with the most barriers to work so they can recover confidence, skills and self-awareness on the road to potential employment and a brighter future. Our incredible Employment Team worked to craft this unique series specifically for a cohort of women – including many who reside in our Gresham Women’s Shelter. After many weeks of inspiring hard work, the cohort of 13 graduates received their diplomas at an emotional ceremony. It was a morning filled with pride, accomplishment, tears, hugs and love – one of the most memorable celebrations I have attended in my 25 years of doing this work. I’ve enclosed a recent article in the Gresham Outlook about this program – take a look!
Community Conversation on Homelessness
Marci Cartagena, Emergency Services Director, answers an audience question.
This summer we hosted a conversation about homelessness and enjoyed dialoging with the community about what’s happening in our city and what we are doing to help solve it. About 50 folks joined us at a coffee shop in the Mt. Tabor neighborhood, where we had a robust, productive conversation that moved us all toward greater understanding of homelessness and more empathy for the people trying to survive it. Folks had the chance to talk with our experts and each other about their personal beliefs about our economy, our housing markets, and how to help those left out of the prosperity we are seeing in Oregon. Thank to locally-owned office sharing company CENTRL Office for hosting another Community Conversation at their Pearl location on Tuesday, December 3rd from 5:30-7:30 PM – RSVP here. If you’d like us to bring this kind of dialog to your community, please reach out to our communications director Lisa at lfrack@humansolutions.org or 503.548.0282.
Thank you, as always, for caring about our community and Human Solutions’ role in making it work for everyone. I am so glad that you are part of the Human Solutions family.
Warmly,
Andy Miller, Executive Director
PS – If you are inspired by our accomplishments, we’re open for gifts 24/7 right here (thank you!): humansolutions.org/giving.
https://ourjustfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Graduate.jpg337561Lisa Frackhttps://ourjustfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Our-Just-Future-fka-HSI-logo.pngLisa Frack2019-10-28 10:34:292019-12-27 15:13:53Update | Fall 2019
https://ourjustfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Mia.jpg13332000Lisa Frackhttps://ourjustfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Our-Just-Future-fka-HSI-logo.pngLisa Frack2019-10-25 09:59:292019-11-19 14:16:51A Conversation With Mia Birdsong | October 2019 (video)
On Friday, September 20th we celebrated something BIG here at Human Solutions: we broke ground to build 75 units of rental housing and a new anchor office for our team alongside Portland’s newest greenspace – Discovery Park in East Portland’s Gateway neighborhood. This new development will provide homes for those in need, a place for local businesses to thrive and a new home for Human Solutions. We can’t wait to invite you to the Grand Opening in about 18 months!
I encourage you to check out the project details on our web site along with some of the architectural renderings. That way you’ll be able to envision the transformation of this empty lot where we will open this new community in Spring 2021. We hope you think it’s as beautiful as we do!
Project partners helped us break ground. Thanks to LMC Construction, our contractor, for the gold shovels!
In addition to adding 75 apartments affordable to a range of incomes, this new space will include an anchor office and service center for Human Solutions.We are thrilled to be building a home of our own in East Portland, where we have been part of the community for more than 30 years. We have outgrown our current leased space, which has long needed an upgrade. We’re ready for our amazing team and the people who seek our support to feel the warmth and sense of value a beautiful space conveys.
Project partners helped us break ground. Thanks to LMC Construction, our contractor, for the gold shovels!
We could not have put this project together without a host of incredible partners – some experts, others investors (and some both!). Our development team: Gerding Edlen, Holst Architecture and LMC Construction. Our investors: JP Morgan Chase, The Collins Foundation, Dudley Ventures, US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Low Income Investment Fund, Metro, Meyer Memorial Trust, Multnomah County, On Semiconductor, Oregon Housing & Community Services, Portland Housing Bureau, PNC Bank, and (last but definitely not least!) Prosper Portland.
Among the many wonderful speakers at the groundbreaking celebration one really stood out. Laurie Palmer is not just an eloquent speaker (though she is definitely that). She is an incredible woman with a story to tell who happens to live in another housing community that Human Solutions developed and owns. Her message is perhaps the most important of all, because she represents the reason we do this work: to create a community where everyone can experience the dignity of a well-built, permanent home that they can afford. Our work at Human Solutions helps people overcome the barriers they face in our inequitable economic and social systems. Laurie sought Human Solutions’ help to bust through those barriers, but make no mistake: she is a survivor who got herself where she is today. We’re grateful that Laurie is using her voice to call for a better way. We invite you to take a few minutes (two and seven seconds, to be exact!) to hear her powerful and inspiring message.
Thank you for celebrating with us as we work to build a community that works for everyone,
Andy Miller, Executive Director
PS – Want to be part of the solution? We never turn down an offer of support – give here today. It’ll feel good!
https://ourjustfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Laurie.jpg468658Lisa Frackhttps://ourjustfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Our-Just-Future-fka-HSI-logo.pngLisa Frack2019-10-08 13:04:592019-10-08 14:29:33BIG News! We broke ground on our most ambitious project yet!
https://ourjustfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/mia-birdsong.png341341Lisa Frackhttps://ourjustfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Our-Just-Future-fka-HSI-logo.pngLisa Frack2019-10-08 12:49:332019-10-28 09:54:04A Conversation With Mia Birdsong
I hope you are staying dry in September’s unseasonably wet weather! I just closed down my garden for the season – including harvesting my first ever homegrown acorn squash and making two big batches of Mama Miller’s Tomato Bolognese! As we turn to fall here at Human Solutions, we have some very exciting news to share. Thanks for taking a few moments out of your day to connect with our work – we’re always grateful that you are a part of it.
WE’RE BUILDING MORE AFFORDABLE HOUSING!
Human Solutions is thrilled to have received a competitive award of $13.9 million in funding from the City of Portland’s Housing Bond to redevelop the site of our former Family Center at SE 161st & Stark. When we purchased the building and site in 2015, our long-term goal was to build affordable apartments for families struggling to make ends meet amidst rapidly rising rents in East County. We are already in pre-development to make that dream come true.
A key component of our vision for this site is a partnership with LifeWorks NW, a very experienced behavioral health provider that will provide onsite services for residents. The combination of deeply affordable housing and relevant support services will help people transition out of homelessness. This kind of permanent supportive housing is a nationally-recognized model that has been proven to end chronic homelessness. Pictured here at the official announcement of these exciting awards in Portland City Hall is our team, along with LifeWorks NW Executive Director Mary Monnat. We will of course share details with you as this project progresses. The Oregonian covered the exciting news here.
MIA BIRDSONG IS REFRAMING POVERTY. JOIN HER at our next community event at APANO!
We’re very excited about our fall speaker event. Register now to join us on October 17th for new perspectives on how we think about and respond to poverty in our community. Mia Birdsong gave a TED Talk on poverty in 2015 that went viral. We’re bringing her to Portland to have a critical community conversation about the way we see poverty in our culture – and why it matters. This is an opportunity to open our minds, explore our biases, and learn to see our community in powerful new ways. Plus: it’s hosted and there’s food! What are you waiting for!?! Register here. Spread the word on Facebook here.
INTRODUCING: TEAM LILAC!
This summer our shelter team (pictured here) worked incredibly hard to ready a new space for families experiencing homelessness. Since opening the doors at Lilac Meadows, we have been gradually ramping up to full capacity, when we will have 40 families in residence. We love our new space because it allows families the privacy of a motel room but the community and one-on-one support it takes to find stable housing and begin to recover from the trauma of homelessness. Many of our shelter staff have experienced homelessness themselves, which is so important to our ability to connect with and support residents in crisis. Their extra effort to make our new location shine really shows. Thanks, team! We’re proud of all they have accomplished.
NEW DATA & ANALYSIS ON REGIONAL HOMELESSNESS
Portland State University recently created a Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative that has been adding a lot of good information and thinking to the issue, for which we are grateful. Shortly after our local Joint Office of Homeless Services released our local 2019 Point-In-Time count, this new Collaborative released a more comprehensive data set and analysis with some recommendations for a path forward, including exciting new potential funding tools that could put real solutions within reach. Check it out if you’re curious about the scope of the problem and some ideas for solutions; there’s also a quick article summarizing key points.
REDLINING: PAST PRACTICE + PRESENT IMPACT
While redlining is no longer legal (thank you, Fair Housing Act), its impacts are very visible in how our cities remain racially segregated. Redlining is widely credited with creating the significant wealth gap between Blacks and Whites in the United States. You’ve heard of compound interest; we can think of redlining as compound racism that has severely restricted access to wealth building opportunities (like homeownership) over time, leading to the extreme racial wealth gaps we see and experience today.
VIDEO EXPLAINING NEW STATEWIDE TENANT PROTECTIONS: PLEASE SHARE WIDELY!
In early 2019, the Oregon State Legislature passed Senate Bill 608 to better protect tenants from displacement. The new law (effective since 2/19) places an annual cap on rent increases statewide and expands Portland’s protections against no-cause evictions to the entire state. Creating a law is just the first step, though; getting the word out is essential and takes effort. Our terrific partners at the Oregon Housing Alliance have helpful information on their web site, plus we really like this short video in English and Spanish that boils it down well.
COMMERCIAL SPACES AVAILABLE IN GRESHAM
We have two commercial spaces for rent in the heart of Rockwood on the ground floor of our Rockwood Multi-Service Center
A fully functional commercial kitchen with appliances included and office space in approximately 1,050 square feet.
Fully outfitted childcare facility with approximately 4,250 square feet already built out to spec for children ages 3-5, with three classrooms, an enclosed outdoor play space, office space and a secure door to the rest of the building.
Both spaces are available now. Please call Mike Malone (503) 972-8609 or email mike.malone@am.jll.com for more information. Other current tenants in the Rockwood MSC are social service providers: Human Solutions Inc., Wallace Medical Concern and Metropolitan Family Services.
Warmly,
Andy Miller, Executive Director
PS – Inspired by what we’re doing? We will gratefully accept your online donation here: https://ourjustfuture.org/giving/ (thank you!!)
https://ourjustfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Our-Just-Future-fka-HSI-logo.png00Lisa Frackhttps://ourjustfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Our-Just-Future-fka-HSI-logo.pngLisa Frack2019-09-25 12:07:102019-09-25 12:19:33We’re building more housing & other news
Human Solutions is pleased to host this groundbreaking celebration as we begin construction on our newest project, including mixed-income affordable housing development and Human Solutions’ service center and office space. The project features ground-floor retail operated by Prosper Portland along Halsey Street and Discovery Park, a wonderful new urban park built by the folks at Portland Parks and Recreation. The project is located in East Portland’s Gateway neighborhood, where we are excited to become a contributing neighbor.
We are developing this project with our terrific partner Gerding-Edlen.
You’ll find tasty (and of course local) treats, inspiring words, golden shovels, and an important land acknowledgement. We’ll also reveal the building’s new name! And 20 or so months later, we’ll invite you back for the Grand Opening 🙂
This month has been a whirlwind of activity here at Human Solutions – including a visit from Mayor Wheeler to our awesome after-school program, planning for our inspiring fall speaker, and a robust community conversation about homelessness – among much else! Happily, we were still able to find time to gather for an all-staff picnic last week to connect with each other in a beautiful place and honor our team for their tremendous work every day. Here’s the full scoop:
Come Listen to Mia Birdsong Reframe Poverty
We’re very excited to open registration for our fall speaker event. Be sure to save the date! Mia Birdsong gave a TED Talk in 2015 that went viral. We’re bringing her to Portland to address a topic that is at the heart of what we do and who we are: poverty and how people view those who experience it. This is an opportunity to open our minds, explore our biases and learn to see things in new ways. Plus: it’s free and there’s food! What are you waiting for!?! Register here (it’s free but space is limited). Spread the word on Facebook here.
We’re Concerned About the Proposed Change in the Public Charge Rule
As you may be aware, the Trump Administration has been moving a policy change through the rulemaking process that could go into effect this fall related to how we determine when an immigrant is considered a “public charge” and denied entry (here’s a nice overview of the concept). Human Solutions does NOT support the shift and believes it to be harmful to our immigrant neighbors – whom we welcome with open arms. We rely on expert organizations like the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) to guide us, and want to share their tools to help others understand what’s at stake and how to respond. A quick overview from them:
“On August 14, 2019, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a final rule related to public charge in the Federal Register. The rule will not take effect until October 15, 2019. Additionally, many organizations have indicated they will file lawsuits challenging the legality of the rule. Thus, even after publication, legal challenges could delay implementation.
The new rule has created confusion and fear in our communities. Because it is very difficult to understand who might be impacted, many immigrant families have decided to disenroll or refuse enrolling in programs that are necessary to survive and thrive. Many immigrants remain exempt from this public charge rule and many immigrants continue to be eligible for various programs.”
We encourage you to learn more from the ILRC here and share where needed. Human Solutions believes that this kind of anti-immigrant fear mongering is neither good for our community nor true to our values as a nation. We oppose this new policy.
We Hosted a Community Conversation on Homelessness
Earlier this month we hosted a gathering for members of our community to learn, ask questions and share their thoughts about the humanitarian crisis of homelessness in our area. We welcomed 55 people into a productive discussion where we shared personal experiences, considered how our humanity works in this moment, and tried to grasp the enormity of the causes that led us here – and how we might solve them. Our goal is to discuss both the practical how-tos and the big picture questions that we’re all grappling with. We are considering where to host our next one – stay tuned!
Homelessness Isn’t the Crisis You Think It Is
This is a powerful opinion piece by Marisa Zapata, an associate professor at PSU who directs the Homeless Research and Action Collaborative. What resonates with us is her focus on the underlying systems that are broken and her insistence that if we don’t turn our attention to those systems we won’t – can’t – end homelessness.
“To truly stop homelessness, we need to fix the long-term systemic issues that lead to it in the first place. We need universal rights to safe and quality housing and universal health care so no one is forced to choose between buying insulin and making rent. We need major criminal justice reform that does not sentence people to life on the streets and an overhaul of how we support those with addiction and major mental illnesses so recovery is possible for everyone. We need stronger protections for historically marginalized communities so your ZIP code, gender identity or skin color doesn’t dictate your future.”
Hear, hear
Mayor Wheeler Shopped at Our Young Entrepreneur’s Market
Home-made stress balls, snow cones and ice-cream sundaes are just the start of the fastest-growing farmers market in Portland –hosted by youth in Human Solutions’ LearnLinks after-school and summer program! After conducting market research on a field trip to Saturday Market in downtown Portland, the students opened their own stands at Lincoln Woods, one of our 17 affordable housing communities. Together they earned almost $200, Portland Mayor Wheeler was among the shoppers! Human Solutions aims to level the playing field for youth from low-income families, and our LearnLinks program is one way we are doing that.
Annual Staff Picnic @ Blue Lake Regional Park
Every summer we gather our whole 130-person team for an afternoon of connection, celebration and thanks. Human Solutions staff work hard every day in often challenging circumstances, so making time to honor their work and eat a meal together is gratifying. We work out of six locations, so bringing everyone together is tricky but really important to foster teamwork and create a workplace where we know each other as whole people. Plus, it’s way more fun and effective to work with folks you know. We shared a LOT of photos on Facebook (which you can peruse here). ‘Til next year!
2019 Point-In Time Homelessness Count Was Released
Every other year the US Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) requires communities that receive its funds to conduct a one-night count of people the department defines as homeless. Multnomah County completed its count in January and released the findings this summer. You’ll find the report here, including a new online dashboard. We invite you to get our (short) take here. Key caution: the data is useful, but typically results in undercounts and does not produce a full picture of homelessness in our community.
THANK YOU for your ongoing interest in and support of our work in the community. If you have any questions for us or would like to learn more about what we are doing, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Our main line is 503.548.0200 or you can email our Communications & Development Director, Lisa Frack.
